Apple’s environmental report claims the new Mac Pro is a green, power-sipping machine

Apple’s new Mac Pro might set you back a hefty $2,999, but the company has taken steps to ensure that Mother Nature won’t be taking as dramatic a hit as your wallet.

In an environmental report released on Thursday, Apple revealed that the new design consumes far less power than its predecessor, and it’s packaged and designed with eco-friendliness and recycling in mind.

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It all starts at the electrical outlet: The new Mac Pro consumes approximately 68 percent less power when idle than its predecessor — a mere 43 watts, versus the older model’s 134 watts. Power consumption under load will vary, but its power supply is also slightly more efficient than the previous model, and newer energy-sipping components like flash storage and Intel Xeon E5 CPUs should prove more power-efficient than those in previous Mac Pros.

The packaging has also taken a cut, weighing 84-percent less than before. That should be rather obvious — it is a relatively tiny thing — but the new packaging is also made with a minimum of 33 percent post-consumer recycled corrugated cardboard. Smaller, lighter boxes means a smaller footprint for shipping, allowing distributors to pack more hardware into every shipment, ostensibly reducing the total greenhouse gas emissions used in getting it from the factory to your home. And in addition to Apple’s usual stance on steering clear of restricted substances, much of the Mac Pro’s material chassis consists of recycler-friendly materials like aluminum and copper.

Anyone in the market for a $3,000 workstation will have a lot of requirements to consider, but it is nice to see that energy-efficient and environmentally friendly isn’t necessarily stricken from the list.

You can check out how the new Mac Pro fares (warning: PDF), and see how the rest of Apple’s lineup stacks up at the company’s environment site.